Few voters get to meet political candidates in person,
so we compiled 50 things you need to know about the the longest-serving
governor in Texas history as he prepares for a likely presidential run.

1. Rick Perry considers Sam Houston the greatest leader in
American history.

2. He first met his wife, Anita Thigpen, at a piano recital
in elementary school. They married in 1982.

3. On their first date, Perry's parents drove.

4. He graduated third in his high school class of 13.

5. He calls his father, Ray Perry, his greatest hero. The
elder Perry was a tail gunner in World War II and served as a Haskell
County commissioner and a school board member.

6. Perry has a reputation for not sweating, but he gets
nervous like everyone else. He practiced using the gavel before his first - and
only - legislative session as lieutenant governor.

7. He has two grown children: a son, Griffin, and a
daughter, Sydney.

8. He created the Trans-Texas Corridor plan, a controversial
network of highways, rail lines, pipelines and transmission lines. The plan was
scuttled after backlash from landowners and others.

9. Perry is slightly bowlegged - a fact he attributes to
"trying to stand like those cowboys when I was a kid."

10. He was born James Richard Perry on March 4, 1950, in the
town of Paint Creek, near Abilene. His childhood home had no running
water.

11. He's a fifth-generation Texan.

12. He became governor when George W.
Bush resigned in late 2000 to head to the White House. Since, Perry
has won three four-year terms and is Texas' longest-serving governor.

13. He said in 2009 that President Barack
Obama was "hell-bent" on turning America into a socialist
country.

14. Perry's core constituency is conservative evangelical
Christians, but he has supported some measures that clashed with their beliefs.
In 2007, he signed an executive order requiring all girls entering the
sixth grade to be vaccinated against a virus that can cause cervical
cancer. The Legislature promptly blocked Perry's order.

15. Perry is a history buff and enjoys reading books and
watching TV programs about World War II.

16. He loves classic rock and especially The Who.

17. He's an Eagle Scout and wrote a book about the virtues
of Scouting. His second book, Fed Up!, was a polemic against what he
sees as an overreaching, bloated federal government.

18. He has a dachshund named Lucy and a black lab named
Rory.

19. He remains embroiled in controversy over the 2004
execution of Cameron Todd Willingham. Perry removed three appointees from the
Texas Forensic Science Commission just days before the board was going to
investigate a flawed arson investigation in Willingham's case.

20. Perry was a member of the Corps of Cadets at Texas
A&M University, and he was a junior and senior yell leader.

21. He wanted to be a veterinarian, but his grades weren't
good enough. He graduated with a degree in animal science in 1972.

22. He's the first Aggie to be governor.

23. Perry said in 2009 that Texas could have the right to
secede: "If Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people,
you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique
place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot." He later clarified
that he didn't support secession.

24. He served four and a half years in the United States Air
Force, flying C-130s in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.

25. He was a Democrat as a state legislator and
switched parties in 1989, just before running for agriculture commissioner.

26. He is an outdoorsman who enjoys hunting and fishing.

27. Perry has led the push for extensive limits on lawsuits,
especially on those that charge medical malpractice.

28. He has never lost an election, including an elementary
school contest for "king" of the Paint Creek School Carnival. He
secured that win by handing out pennies for votes.

29. As a boy, he said, a teacher asked him if he wanted to
be a Christian. "Nope. I want to be an Aggie," he replied.

30. He sold Bibles door-to-door in Missouri one summer while
in college.

31. At age 9, he had the grand champion steer, Nosey, in a
junior livestock show in West Texas' Haskell County, where he grew up.

32. He played quarterback on the six-man football team for
the Paint Creek Pirates. He also played basketball and ran track.

33. Perry has overseen large monetary investments in
securing the Texas-Mexico border and has repeatedly asked the federal
government for 1,000 National Guard troops to post along the border.

34. He has defended his support of in-state college tuition
for the children of illegal immigrants, saying those young people have lived in
Texas for years, are on the path to citizenship, have studied hard and should
be encouraged to get education or vocational training.

35. He's a runner and triathlete.

36. He is a prankster. In college, he left a few grackles
and a bunch of bird seed in a classmate's dorm room over Christmas break. The
birds left a nasty mess.

37. He was college buddies with one of his future political
rivals, Democrat John Sharp, whom he beat for lieutenant governor in 1998.

38. He plays the drums. At a January 2005 inaugural party in
Washington, he played with ZZ Top in front of 2,000 people.

39. He touts his success in creating jobs in Texas and
keeping the state's economy afloat during the recession.

40. Perry did not apply for federal "Race to the
Top" education funds because he said it would force national standards
upon Texas.

41. One of his legislative priorities has been a measure to
further curtail how much property appraisals can increase each year, but the
Legislature has consistently rejcted the change.

42. His favorite food is popcorn.

43. He has vetoed a record 272 bills, including dozens after
the 2001 session, angering many lawmakers.

44. The governor became a member of the Screen Actors
Guild after he appeared in the Tommy Lee Jones movie Man of the
House. In the movie, he played the governor of Texas.

45. In an 1991 interview, he said his guests at a fantasy
dinner would be Cynthia Ann Parker, the white mother of Comanche chief Quanah
Parker; William B. Travis, commander at the Alamo; Gen. George Armstrong
Custer , killed at the battle of Little Big Horn; and Robert E. Lee,
commanding general of the Confederate army.

46. Perry wrote a letter to Congress in 2008
urging it to pass a bill to save the national and global economy. But he
contends that he didn't necessarily mean the $700 bailout that Congress
eventually approved.

47. In high school, he was chosen "Most Popular"
and "Beau of the Future Homemakers of America."

48. He considered a career as a commercial pilot. In 1978,
his family farm was struggling because of a drought, and he planned an
interview with Southwest Airlines. But the rains came in time, and he
entered politics instead.

49. As agriculture commissioner, he once drew the ire of
advice columnist Ann Landers for this response to allegations of
animal cruelty at the Tyler County Fair: "The underlying issue,
which has created a whirlwind of attention, is whether or not an animal has the
same rights as a human being."